I started a thread where I intended to post copies of the news accounts of Ford Sixes (Model K) winning and placing in endurance and speed contests. However, there were too many to post the news clips, so I've transferred the results to word.

Below are over twenty five contests with Ford Sixes winning or placing. Notice the other cars the Fords are competing. Where I'm going with this is to demonstrate that the Ford K was very competitive with some of the best marquees of the day.

I may be off on some of the names due to poor copies. This is especially true of the foreign competitions. Along those lines, I've found evidence that Model Ks were in several countries in Europe. If anyone has examples of Model Ks in other countries please post the information.

What year did this take place? Wait a minute! After about fifteen minutes, I found it. (I never have been that good at finding things by using Google or other search engines on the internet, but wanted to try it myself anyway) I found the article in the Motor magazine from January 30 1908. However that means the 20hp car cannot be a model T. It could be an error in reporting? Maybe a model S speedster? Perhaps a model B? (It would have been about three years old then?) More mysteries. Sad about a fatality during the event. I wonder if it was the driver or navigator/spotter/passenger of the car? Or could the fatality been on the street car? What kind of car it was? Great stuff! Again, thank you Rob! Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2

I'm posting other K results to this thread until I'm able to come back and transfer everything to the word doc I wrote the first 20 some on.

The more I find (K top finishes) the more support there is that the Model K was a quality car that was well received by the public.

I've also found another leading 6 cylinder car maker who sold less sixes over the same time frame (1906-1908) yet is considered a leading top end auto producer of the time (another story for another thread )

Also, my mistake, I thought it was a Jan 1909 article above. The 20 hp Ford must be a typo as you said, for either a 15 or 40 hp Ford.

Rob, No worries. I had just gotten curious about the mix of Ford models and went looking for the year and discovered it. A lot of those magazines-on-internet copies are poor quality. I wasn't sure if it was '08 or '09 till I scrolled clear to the title page where the original type was larger. I really enjoy this research you are doing. Thank you. Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2

That British Napier is another car that would be incredible to own and tour with! Sorry Rob! Their name comes up occasionally in these races and I couldn't hold it back any longer. Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2

I can't equate how "well received by the public" would equate to a car that sold only 300 units per model year (or 450 per year if you count only the years it was actually being built). How happy were people who were not buying the Model K?

Anyway, another Ford Model K doing well. This time second behind a Corbin. Notice the other cars in the $3,000 category. Also, a Model N does well, and one of the Fords does well on a slow speed (oxymoron?) contest.

Seems to me if a person were reading the sports sections back in 07 and 08, the results showing a lot of Fords placing in races might have been positively received. But what do I know..... .. Does anyone see a trend? .

The obvious trend of all this is to show that beyond any shadow of a doubt success at the race track did not help cars sell the Model K. All of the cars that placed in the top three "podium" positions consist of makes that were mostly out of business by 1915.

The history of Model K racing validates Henry Ford's decision to quit building large expensive unprofitable cars after he stopped making the Model K in 1907.

I love the Model K Rob. It is an enigma, a shining example of how Henry Ford saw the future, gambled all his fortune, and won by dropping the successor to the K and concentrated his efforts building the Model T.

Good, I thought for a while you disagreed with me. Guess I was wrong. Seeing as how you spoke of the merits of the Pierce Arrow and Thomas, and those companies also went "by the wayside", guess now we're on the same page.

There were so many makes of cars back in those days. It is fun to read through the names of cars when there are many you have never seen. (I have never seen a Pennsylvania automobile, but have seen the name now in a couple different races.) It is even more fun to see very rare marques that you are familiar with. There is an Imperial that has been in our Regional Group a lot longer than I have. Yes, it is a good performer on tours as well as a gorgeous automobile. I have now seen the Imperial in your race results a couple different times.

Thanks Rob, The Imperial in our club is a touring, but I can see the resemblance to that roadster. It was a solid original car, beautifully restored in the '50s (Not the typical '50s restoration). I last saw it just a few years ago and it still looks wonderful. It has one of the most beautiful and unique looking carbide/gas generators I have ever seen. It has been pictured in the HCCA Gazette a couple times. Just a few extra side notes.

The race from Cypress to Houston reminds of one of these big Fords I saw in the vicinity a number of years ago in a barn.

I was into Model A's and V8's at the time but it was good bit larger than a T. I told him if he wanted to let it go to call me. Biggest Ford I had seen.

There are probably more of them out there than you would think. I have a V8 that Ford only made about 4,000+ units and you don't see very many of them but I still drive it. Probably no more than 400 have survived. I think I would put it up on stands in a fire protected shop if there were only 25 or 30 left.

I like to get one "new" competition a day where a Ford Model K places or scores well. . Today's offering, Sept 11, 1906, a Ford scores a perfect score along with several "high end autos on a 95 mile reliability tour. Cars finishing with "clean scores included:

Ford, Buick, Stevens Duryea, Haynes, Olds, Jackson, White, Pierce, Winton, Pope Toledo, Rambler and Locomobile. Certainly good company. . . . . . Seeing as this contest was held in Kansas in 1906, it is very possible that Steve Jelf as a young boy witnessed the arrival of cars in Paola Kansas .

Another: August 1906. This would be one of the first Model Ks. It comes in 17 th on an endurance tour among cars costing over $1700 and under $2500. Cars finishing after the K include Premier, Rambler, Olds, Moline and Cadillac. . .

Maybe the last one. This was another Ormond Daytona Beach race, January 1906. Several records were broken with many high horsepower foreign competitors. The Ford six 4th in a "flying start" one kilometer race.

This is a big race event and involves several days of racing. I happened on the results searching Ford driver Frank Kullick. Interestingly, only an English journal carried the place finishers far enough out to show the afford six placing. I'll post another clearer picture that shows the top two finishers. . . . .